Category: Music

Howdy!

I would like to invite you to my concert Sentimental Journey: Threeton & White Do Songs of the 30’s & 40’s, on Saturday, October 12.

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What a deal! Sponsored by the University of Michigan School of Music.

This website offers free downloads of the complete extant organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded by Dr. James Kibbie from 2007 to 2009 on original baroque organs in Germany.

Exactly which works should be recorded? More than 250 years after Bach’s death, it is by no means certain exactly what he composed. The selection of works for this series draws on the Bach Werke Verzeichnis, Kleine Ausgabe (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1998), supplemented by other recent scholarship, including the work of Prof. Christoph Wolff and the research of the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut Göttingen. Bach’s organ transcriptions of works by other composers have been included. Dr. Kibbie has also recorded those works which survive only as fragments, leaving these works incomplete as they exist in the manuscript sources.

For the “dubious” works which may or may not be by Bach, Dr. Kibbie has chosen which to record, including especially those long associated with the Bach canon, such as the Pedal-Exercitium, the Kleines harmonisches Labyrinth and the “Gigue” Fugue. On the other hand, some works long identified with Bach are now widely regarded as spurious, and so have not been included (for example, the Eight “Little” Preludes and Fugues).

Bach composed for organs ranging from the 17th-century North German instruments he admired in his youth to the mid-18th-century organs he himself helped design during his Leipzig years. For these recordings, Dr. Kibbie has selected seven historically significant instruments matched to the varying stylistic requirements of the Bach repertoire.

[From James Kibbie – Bach Organ Works]

YouTube user FunToTheHead has created a working organ that uses finely tuned wheezing floppy drives to play rather impressive renditions of music. It’s not easy to sequence for four-note floppy-drive organs, but FunToTheHead has done a rather good job with Tocatta and Fugue — a solid choice for any mad-science organ! I love that he’s got the blinkenlights synched with the music.

People have made floppy drives sing before, but this is my personal take on it.

Features two 3 1/2″ drives and two 5 1/4″ drives connected to a PIC18f14k50 microcontroller. It interfaces to any MIDI source via MIDI over USB. Straight MIDI would also be possible with an additional small circuit and some minor firmware changes. This initial version can respond to all 128 MIDI notes, and pitch bends +/- 2 semitones.

As it can produce only four simultaneous notes, and each drive has a different range and tonal characteristics, best results are obtained by arranging compositions by hand. However, it features two modes of operation: in one mode, MIDI channels 1 through 4 are played directly on floppy drives 1 through 4. In the other mode, all 16 MIDI channels are read, and notes are “intelligently” divvied out on a first-come, first-serve basis. “Note stealing” ensures that melody lines sound, but chords are often cut short. One or the other produces acceptable results for many unmodified MIDI files straight out of your favorite media player.

Phantom of the Floppera

So I built a musical instrument out of antiquated PC hardware… (Reddit)

(Thanks, Evan!)





[From Floppy drive organ plays tocatta]

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Opera Vista presents the world premiere of The Silent Prince, a “Bollywood” opera with music and libretto by Thailand’s leading operatic composer, Somtow Sucharitkul. An aesthetic fusion of east and west, The Silent Prince’s lush score combines western and traditional Indian instruments. Classical and Bollywood choreography, provided by the Anjali Center for the Performing Arts, and a live elephant on stage contribute to an evening of both sophistication and spectacle.

The Silent Prince tells the Buddhist tale of Temiya Jataka, a Buddha who has been reincarnated as a prince. When forced to choose between committing terrible karmic deeds and disobeying his father, Temiya withdraws from the world into silence. The royal court tries to draw him back into the world, but a king’s patience can only last so long….

The opera lasts approximately 95 minutes with one intermission.

Cast (in order of appearance):

Suja/Maya/Concubine Kelly Waguespack
Apsara Nueng/Amba Elizabeth Borik
Apsara Song/Ka Raatchasamnak Sam Vanessa Beaumont
Apsara Sam/Ka Raatchasamnak Si Zina Hemingway
Shakro Devanam Indra/Yama/Procurer Matthew Strader
Ka Raatchasamnak Nueng William Stewart
Queen Chandra Devi Shannon Langman
Sunanda Gregory Smith
Raja of Kasi Timothy Jones
Temiya Ryan West
Dancers of the Anjali Dance Center

Music Director: Viswa Subbaraman

Stage Director: Joe Carl White

Choreographers: Rathna Kumar and Mahesh Mahbubani

Tickets are $25-$75 ($10 Student and Senior discounts with current valid ID), and are available through the Hobby Center…get yours now!

The Silent Prince has been made possible by:

Jefferies

Houston Arts Alliance and the City of Houston
KUHF
Crisp & Raw Graphic Design
Fresh Arts Coalition
Spacetaker
Uniquely Houston
Lexus
Continental Airlines

[From Silent Prince World Premiere at Hobby Center, 10/15 8pm | Opera Vista]